Color Neutral Persons: How do you choose your cross?

[jskyler91]

I have been fully color neutral for over six months (yes I mean completely color neutral i.e. no I do not have any color baises) and I am still struggling with this question. I have always thought that if I just practiced finding the best cross that I would just get faster at it and eventually be able to find it, plan it, find my first pair (I always try to do this in inspection if possible), and find a good way to finger it; but here I am six months later and I still find it difficult to do this all within the 12 seconds I have to inspect. This is not to say that I can't do it, I can normally do all of this about half of the time, but I often run into these problems/issues:

1. Doing all of this is stressful and makes you feel jittery (maybe just me) during and shortly after the inspection (lookahead suffers).

2. The time spent finding the best cross could be spent solidifying your cross and first f2l piece.

3. It can turn out to be a complete waste of time if you inspect the entire cube and can't find a cross to go with (I normally default to blue).

4. Sometimes you will start with one cross and then find a better one midway through your memo and you either loose track of your cross or have to start over with the other cross.

My current method for choosing a cross goes something like this:

1. Pick up cube
2. Inspect front, right and left crosses,
3. Quickly survey other three
4. Choose the cross that either JUMPS OUT at me or seems easiest/most finger trick friendly
5. Memo cross so that I can do it bld
6. Figure out which faces my cross effects
7. Find corner that seems to be least effected and find its ending position
8. Find the corresponding edge
9. Put down cube in way that fists finger tricks
10. Solve cross
11. Track edge as I solve
12. Solve rest of cube

Do any other color neutral solvers out there have a method for choosing their cross they wouldn't mind sharing? I listed some of the other ways to find crosses in the poll (I have used pretty much all of these at one point and still often use some), but I would like to hear some novel ways if you have any. Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[HelpCube]

I usually look around for edges that are already in their correct spot, and do my cross on one of the two sides the edge is on. If there are none, I look for edges "attached" to one of their centers but not the other, and find a cross from there.

 

[jskyler91]

I usually look around for edges that are already in their correct spot, and do my cross on one of the two sides the edge is on. If there are none, I look for edges "attached" to one of their centers but not the other, and find a cross from there.

Yeah, I guess I kind of do that too, I also just realized that I subconsciously try to look for oriented edges seeing as they can get to their proper position in only two moves max.

 

[Kirjava]

I don't really think about it much. Do whatever looks nice.

 

[GearGuy57]

I find the side with the most pieces that can easily be solved. i only take about 5 sec. to inspect

 

[5BLD]

I quickly scan all blocks within my colour scheme, finding all their solutions then pick the one with fastest fingertricks or lower movecount

 

[HelpCube]

I quickly scan all blocks within my colour scheme, finding all their solutions then pick the one with fastest fingertricks or lower movecount

You can find the solution for every block in 15 seconds?? Geez.

 

[kirtpro]

first i look for a cross preferably with a fingertrick friendly solution
i then think about if it's possible to preserve a pair or make one
if i think finding a pair is difficult i try out the next best color
i then decide which i want

 

[Kirjava]

I quickly scan all blocks within my colour scheme, finding all their solutions then pick the one with fastest fingertricks or lower movecount

I don't see why you'd check solutions on obviously bad blocks.

 

[emolover]

I first look for any cross and use it as my "safe cross" if I can't find others.

Then I look for any other easier crosses.

If I have time I look for a corner to track during cross solving. (I suck at Turbo-Tracking)

Then I pause during transition because I suck at that.

 

[CubicNL]

I look around for a colour with 2 pieces already in their correct permution+orientation.
If there is no colour with that setup, I basically pick any colour that seems nice.
So I don't really have a set method like you have.

 

[TheMachanga]

I just look for edges already attached to their center. Then after I find a cross, if I still have time, I look for other crosses just in case it's easier than the original, knowing that if it's not, I already know what I'm going to do.

 

[5BLD]

I don't see why you'd check solutions on obviously bad blocks.

You caught me there.
I meant of course blocks that had decent squares at least

edit: Just in case you're gonna catch me out again, I'd additionally like to say yes, that's right, I don't always start with squares.

So in addition to my post, obviously, if I see an easy block even if it doesn't use my regular strategy, I go for it. The solve may fail but at least I'm exploring new ways of solving.

 

[timelonade]

I usually try to do the same as everyone else and find some correctly positioned pieces, if not then I'll just go for whatever side has the most correctly oriented pieces, place my cross colour on D then try to make it as R U L D as possible, using cross piece insertions like Roux would for second block (with (R'M) and (RM')) which allows me to have a look at any corners sat around on my top layer.
Sorta hard to explain.

Failing this I'll just try to find an optimal cross, I can't do X-Cross, but if I see an F2L pair lined up I'll make my cross take more moves if it means I conserve it.

*shrug*

 

[Kirjava]

I see the 1x2x3 as similar to the 2x2x2 in petrus. I never really rely on a 'system' for solving it - just try and do what's best for each case. I still discover new things for the first block these days.

lolz we turned it into a roux thread.

 

[timelonade]

I see the 1x2x3 as similar to the 2x2x2 in petrus. I never really rely on a 'system' for solving it - just try and do what's best for each case. I still discover new things for the first block these days.

lolz we turned it into a roux thread.

Is it just as easy to be CN with Roux? I am Roux n00b but deviating from my beloved Red, white, blue makes solves hellish ;(

 

[5BLD]

Is it just as easy to be CN with Roux? I am Roux n00b but deviating from my beloved Red, white, blue makes solves hellish ;(

Well it's very hard to change once you've done your blocks for a while.
I'm white yellow on U/D colour neutral, so 8 blocks. Thom is white yellow on L/R colour neutral, so also 8 blocks as well, and it's useful. And there's no difficulty at all. But I have serious problems with using Thom's colour scheme. Except my LSE is faster, which is just weird.

anyway point is, you'll find it easy if you do it early on.

 

[Athefre]

I look for any white or yellow edge already connected to the center. If both white and yellow have edges, I pick the side that has the least pieces paired in the wrong way then plan a 1x2x2 and the final pair. If I have time, I see if the other pair for the 1x2x2 is easier. Even though I sometimes forget what color I'm supposed to solve on R, I can't resist the urge to have the variety that the eight possibilities provide.

 

[Robocopter87]

I personally think you are thinking about it too much. A cross is a cross is a cross. I just scan for a cross that has some correctly corresponding pieces and find its other pieces and just roll with it.

But, in the event that none of the crosses work I just kinda pick a color and wing it.

So yeah, I don't put a lot of thought into it, it gets easier to spot them with practice.

 

[5BLD]

You can never think about it 'too much', you have 15 seconds of inspection, make the most of it.
If you can plan out the first square in 3 secs, plan the whole first block, if you can do that in 3 secs, plan out the second block, or as I do, plan out others and see whether they are good.

If you've still got those all with 10 secs left, why not plan how you're going to fingertrick them?